Using AMD GPUs on Raspberry Pi without recompiling Linux

I'm working on a more in-depth test of some newer AMD GPUs on the Raspberry Pi, now that the 15 line kernel patch is (IMO) nearly ready for upstreaming.

But this blog post shows how to quickly get almost any modern AMD GPU running on a Raspberry Pi 5, CM5, or Pi 500+, thanks to this patch on the Pi Linux fork.

Note: This patch actually enables AMD and Intel. I wrote about how to get Intel Arc GPUs running on the Pi yesterday.

Using Raspberry Pi's rpi-update tool, you can quickly upgrade your Linux kernel to the one built by the patch PR above (assuming you're running the latest Pi OS, 'Trixie').

First, make sure your system is up to date and has the AMD firmware package installed:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y firmware-amd-graphics
sudo reboot

Then, log back in and install the updated kernel version which includes the AMD kernel module:

sudo rpi-update pulls/7113

This will update the Linux kernel to the one built off the PR branch. It enables AMD GPU support on both the BCM2711 used in the Pi 4 generation, and BCM2712 for the Pi 5.

Before rebooting, edit your /boot/firmware/config.txt file, and add the following at the bottom:

dtparam=pciex1_gen=3  # for faster PCIe Gen 3 speeds on Pi 5
auto_initramfs=0  # to avoid 'weird boot mechanisms or file systems'

If you reboot with a GPU attached to the PCIe connection (e.g. on my CM5, I have one plugged into the M.2 slot using this M.2 to Oculink adapter and this eGPU dock), it might work right away, assuming you have a card with firmware in the package you installed earlier.

If it's a newer card, or if you don't see the card working (e.g. you don't get display output), Run the command dmesg and check for amdgpu messages, like:

[    3.693561] amdgpu 0001:03:00.0: amdgpu: Fetched VBIOS from ROM BAR
[    3.693579] amdgpu: ATOM BIOS: 113-48WD6SHD1-P02
[    3.693616] amdgpu 0001:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for amdgpu/psp_14_0_3_sos.bin failed with error -2
[    3.693626] amdgpu 0001:03:00.0: amdgpu: early_init of IP block <psp> failed -19

If you see any firmware load failures, you may need to download the firmware .bin files directly from the linux-firmware.git repository¹. Also check for your graphics card in the Pi PCIe Database in case someone else has run into the same errors.

When using apt with this PR-based kernel, you can ignore any errors regarding initramfs, like dpkg: error processing package initramfs-tools², but if you'd like to get rid of those errors, create a driver-policy file and add the following:

sudo nano /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/driver-policy
# Inside the file, put the line:
MODULES=most

Reboot the Pi, then check on dmesg output again. If you see any more firmware load failures, you may need to download the firmware .bin files directly from the linux-firmware.git repository¹.

But if you don't see any errors, plug a monitor into the graphics card—you should see output, and have full video acceleration working on the GPU!